19 March 2002 -
As part of its media development strategy, the IAAF Communications Department
staged the second media training workshop for elite athletes in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. Aimed at improving the media skills of top runners, this project,
along with Focus on Africans, a parallel initiative which will result in the
compilation of comprehensive biographies to be distributed to the media, is
aimed at helping African athletes to improve their image, bringing out their
unique personalities and helping to promote the sport of Athletics.

The Addis Ababa
workshop was run by Richard Nerurkar, former top British marathon runner who has
been living in the Ethiopian capital since May 2001.
He was assisted by Anna
Legnani, IAAF Deputy Director of Communications, and responsible for Media
Development Projects.

14 March 2002, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Ethiopian
Airlines flight 735 from Frankfurt lands in Bole International Airport at 7:45,
ten minutes ahead of schedule. The hotel shuttle takes me to the Hilton. Twenty
minutes later Richard Nerurkar is in the lobby, and we set off. Today’s’ session
is for the group of marathon runners, tomorrow will be the turn of the cross
country athletes putting the finishing touches on their preparation for the
world championships scheduled in Dublin in ten days.

The venue of the
Media Training Workshop is the Haile Gebrselassie Building in Haile Gebrselassie
Avenue. The two times Olympic Champions and quadruple World Champion, who lent
his offices, is ever present in the examples used by Richard, who introduces the
workshop by asking, “Can you tell me how much Haile will be earning to compete
in London Marathon and why he deserves it? Because he is arguably the greatest
runner of all times, and because he is so good with the media.”

The session
proceeds with exercises to break the ice and make the athletes relax. “Come on,”
urges Richard, “I see you in training and you are always joking and smiling –
that is how the media wants to know you!”

Then come short
presentations by the athletes in front of the camera, played back on the video
and commented by all. Posture, expression, tone and level of voice, fluidity of
speech, everything comes under scrutiny.

When Haile
himself joins the workshop, the advice he gives his fellow athletes is precious:
“Most athletes are only good at running, but giving good interviews is very
important. The meeting organisers look at what appears in the newspapers, and if
you are good he invites you back. And remember, when you are giving an
interview, you are the boss, so relax!”

One who has already learned a
good part of the lesson is Tesfaye Jifar, who has blossomed since the last time
I saw him at the World Half Marathon Championships in Bristol last October,
where he had placed second. His victory a month later in the New York Marathon
has given him great confidence, and he is relaxed and self-assured in front of
the camera and when facing the questions of his colleagues in a mock press
conference. Where he shows his best skills though is in the pertinent questions
he fires back at them when he switches to playing the journalist, and in his
pointed analysis of their performance.

Getachew Kebede, winner of
Djibouti Half-Marathon last month, keeps his gaze lowered shyly as he answers
questions in the press conference. “You have beautiful eyes, we want to see
them, they speak!” is the advice he receives and as he explains that he is
naturally reserved, he already looks steadfastly at his interlocutor.

The best performance of the
day, overshadowing even that of his great friend Haile, comes from the exuberant
Abraha Assefa who briefly recounts his amazing story with smiling face and vivid
gestures. “I started running to escape. First when I was a child: after my
parents’ divorce, I was living with my uncle. Things did not go well with him,
so I escaped, came to Addis and joined the army. It was the time of the war, and
one day I was parachuted with fifty other soldiers on the front and at the end
of the day I was the only one alive. So I looked around and thought it would be
better to join the athletes, and I escaped again to become one of them.” Abreham,
who admits he would have loved to become an actor, will surely provide a great
show in the post-race interview if he does well in Boston Marathon.

15
March 2002

Assefa Mezgebu is the first of
the cross country team to arrive, impeccably elegant in a black suit with pin
striped jacket and white knit shirt. He has brought with him the handout from
the first media training course, conducted in May 2000 in Hengelo by Mike
Whittingham.

When he
introduces himself before the camera he is eloquent and relaxed, and in
announcing that “my next competition are the World Championships in Dublin, and
I am going for gold,” there is no hint of bragging, just the calm assuredness of
an athlete who is now becoming fully aware of his value.

Sixteen year old Tirunesh
Dibaba, who already placed fifth in the junior race last year, is composed and
articulate in her replies, although her soft voice would not carry even to the
first row of journalists in the post-race interview room.

The shiest one today is Hailu
Mekonnen, who won the junior title in 1999 and took bronze in the short cross.
When his friends gently mock him for fidgeting in front of the camera he bravely
replies, “I am here to learn!” A pity that Kenenisa Bekele, who performed even
better than Mekonnen in 2001, with silver at 4km and gold in the junior race,
and is heralded by many as a favourite for the short cross title in Dublin, did
not take the opportunity.

As the reigning Olympic
Champion at 5000m, Million Wolde and his team mates head off, Haile Gebrselassie
arrives after a gruelling session of repetitions up the Entoto Hills, at 3000m
above sea level. In the restaurant where he has invited us for lunch he tells us
that all the athletes were discussing the workshop. “Those who came wished this
had been organised earlier, those who did not attend wished they had come. All
the talk was about the media training. It is important that they understand.
There is so much competition nowadays from other sports, we athletes have to
help to promote Athletics.”